What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

The burden of supporting asylum-seekers with food and housing often falls to cities, creating severe budget crunches. But Denver is piloting a new approach designed to integrate immigrants into the workforce faster.

The Denver Asylum Seekers Program offers six months of rent-free housing along with legal assistance, food aid and workforce training. The program started on April 10, 2024, with spots for up to 1,000 participants.

Only asylum-seekers who were already living in Denver when the program launched are eligible—a provision designed to control costs and discourage hopeful participants from coming to Denver. This is an important detail in a city that—like others—has groaned under the financial strain of an influx of migrants since December 2022.

Upfront financial costs of the new program include expenditures on housing, food and training, which is predicted to cost around US$1,700 per migrant.

So is this expenditure worth it? One way to assess that is to look at an economist's tool set called a cost-benefit analysis. I teach this tool set as a professor of economics at Colorado State University. Such an analysis considers the broad benefits and costs of a program like Denver's compared with maintaining the status quo or "doing nothing."

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